A Heuristic-Based Approach for Enumerating The Minimal Path Sets in a Distribution Network

Determination of minimal path sets and minimal cut sets in a distribution network is essential not only to evaluate the load point reliability indices but also to investigate the different scenarios for power restoration in case of system major cuts. Moreover the order of the minimal cut sets and the number of the minimal path sets gives indication of where the redundant components are needed to improve the load point reliability indices. Most of existing methodologies to determine the minimal path sets and minimal cut sets use complex programming techniques especially when bidirectional flow links are encountered. Developing a reliability graph for each load point adds to the complexity of these methodologies. This paper introduces a simple heuristic-based approach to determine minimal path sets from graph model which, in turn, can be used to enumerate the minimal cut sets. Beside representing the bi-directional flow with one link, this approach uses a generic reliability graph model for multiple source, multiple load points network.